Making the most of The Great Outdoors:- Cycling- Backpacking- Walking- Camping and Caravanning
in 'Eva the Eriba' my Eriba Touring Troll 540.
Travelling at the Speed of Life because everyday is a holiday...........

Tuesday, 6 February 2018

It CAN be a Fantastic place to be.......

Yesterday(Sunday)...... after what seems like weeks of wet weather we had an absolutely stunning day... Yes it was cold but it wasn't raining and the sun shone bright for most of the day...Oh... if only every winters day was as good as that we could be out enjoying walking on the moor every day.....

A great winters day at the Tavistock Site (our unit is on the far left)

The trouble with lovely sunny winter days with clear blue skies is that the nights can be freezing cold and last night was no exception.....The night was very cold indeed with a very heavy frost this morning.Normally we have the heating set not much above the lowest setting but last night I actually had to turn it up a bit which is most unusual for us... Mind you we were really cosy tucked up in Eva the Eriba.....One of the benefits of having a smaller caravan is that it makes it so easy to keep it really warm in the middle of winter....... We woke up today to another fantastic bright and clear day... According to the weather forecast I heard a short while ago the temperature feels colder than it actually is due to a strong north easterly wind but make no mistake it is very bitterly cold....I have to say when the weather is like this Dartmoor is a fantastic place to be..... however when the weather is bad it can be a horrendous location.

This morning looking up at the moor from the 'glamping' Ready-Camps on site...

This morning the BBC's Breakfast programme even had a feature live from up on the moor showing everyone how wonderful Dartmoor CAN be at this time of the year when the weather is dry sunny and cold......However... we were told that the dry, sunny but cold weather could well change with snow being mentioned in all the TV and radio weather forecasts....With the possibility of snow in mind we headed off to the local supermarket in the town in order to top up our supplies.....If we do get snow we want to make sure that we are able to sit it out if we get snowed in.... not that I actually believe that that is a real possibility.

Live cable left plugged in.......

Now for a bit of a Grumpy moan.....Check out the picture above... this always amazes me.......I see this happening a lot on the various sites that we visit throughout the year.....

The motorhome on this pitch has gone out for the day and left his cable plugged in to the power supply allowing the 'live' end to just dangle around on the ground.....

Both The Camping and Caravanning Club and The Caravan and Motorhome Club have a number of information sheets advising people on the best and safest way to use the electrical connections....Two of the points they make are :-1) Remove your cable from the power supply first before disconnecting the cable from your unit.....2) Do not leave a cable plugged into the power supply and not connected to your unit...Obviously this camper either never reads the safety advice or he chooses to ignore it....I wouldn't mind betting that when he plugs the cable back into the motorhome he will leave the spare cable coiled up as well ignoring yet another point of safety advice which is:-3) Ensure that you completely un-coil the power cable when in use on your unit.....I won't bother to bore you all with the reasons to follow this safety advice as it seems obvious to me......Grumpy moan over..!!

4 comments:

Yes there is plenty of information about this, and also about which end to connect first. The other thing I notice is that some campers have their cable on a reel and thats left uncoiled, presumably because it looks tidier. Its beautiful weather at the moment and pleased you snug as a bug in the van. I hope you have managed to stay free of all the viruses that have been doing the rounds.

@DaveAs you say Dave there is plenty of information out there on this subject so no excuse for people not reading it..... I think it's more a case of campers just ignoring it !!Yes...so far we have managed to avoid coughs..colds and worse.

Hi Trevor-I am glad you are managing your activities based on the weather forecast and common sense. That's the way to do it, instead of just winging it, while you are out in the 'wild'.Good PSA on not leaving the live wire unattended.Those sunny, blue skies can be misleading. Even us, living in North Texas, know so.Happy Camping!Peace :)